I use the inbuilt Windows virtual desktops extensively and open different apps on different desktops to suit the way that I work.
Since I upgraded to Toad for Oracle 2025 R3 I am seeing weird behaviour with Toad where, if I move away from Toad to a different Windows virtual desktop and use the apps on that desktop for a few minutes, Toad moves itself from the virtual desktop where I opened it, to the one I am working on!
I only discovered this when I navigated back to the desktop where I opened Toad and it wasn’t there.
When I checked on the other desktops I found Toad had moved itself to the one where I had been working. As the other app on that desktop was in fullscreen mode, I never noticed that Toad had moved there.
At first I thought it was me having a few “senior moments” but it now happens all the time. I haven’t yet determined how many minutes I need to be on another desktop before Toad (somewhat creepily) decides to follow me across to the other desktop and lurk in the background.
I’m running Windows 11 Business (Pro) and am not running any other virtual desktop software.
Here’s the info from Toad “about” splash screen
Toad for Oracle 2025 R3
Toad for Oracle Base Edition (64-bit)
Add-Ons:
25.3.346.7343
Does anyone have any suggestions as to why this is happening and how I can get Toad to stay on the Windows virtual desktop where I open it?
I know very little about using the built-in Windows desktop/task view features. I saw some info online that if a process spawns new processes, has modal dialogs, etc. that it can cause some desktop issues.
I setup a simple test using Toad’s Automation Designer where I added a Pause action and a Message action. Toad is on Desktop 2. I ran the app and switched to Desktop 1. When the message action executes a modal dialog is shown on screen. In this case, Desktop 2 does not show the message box. Toad appears hung. Back on Desktop 1 my message modal box was there waiting for me. When I dismissed it Toad remained on Desktop 2 though.
I did another test with script execution and ran an anon block containing a sleep call on Desktop 2. I switched to Desktop 1 and waited. When the script execution completed, Toad appeared on my Desktop 1 taskbar. Clicking the taskbar button activated Desktop 2.
I wasn’t able to get Toad to fully commit to switching desktops, but the above behavior felt a little odd.
When you observe Toad switching desktops does it coincide with Toad performing some long running task and any status messages or dialogs shown?
These features are new for 2025 R3. I don't know that they would affect the virtual desktop, but maybe they do. Please try unchecking them and let me know how it goes. You'll have to restart Toad.
I’ll try and capture some timings of how long I spend on another workspace before Toad decides it’s lonely and moves to that same workspace. Or see if I can identify what actions I take around the time I notice that Toad has migrated.
In Toad's options, under "Startup", the "Allow multiple copies of Toad" option is unchecked
Toad is minimized
A scheduler event (or other process) fires which calls Toad
Toad brings itself to the foreground, which is whatever VD you happen to be on.
OR
Open Instance Manager within Toad
Change to another VD
When Toad's Instance Manager is running, there is a Toad icon in the windows system tray. Double-clicking it will cause Toad to jump from one VD to another.
Unfortunately, my use case does not fit any of those profiles.
I’m not aware of running/doing anything in Toad which would want it to bring Toad to the foreground. No session browser automatically refreshing, no dbms_output automatic polling, etc.
I mostly just have editor windows open running queries or writing plsql. I sometimes use the schema browser to find something. I will very occasionally have the session browser open to check what’s going with a long running query but that’s the exception rather than the norm.
I will pay closer attention and see if I can identify what actions I have taken or which pieces of Toad functionality I have used, that appear to make it move to another VD.
I have noticed that it doesn’t seem to move more than once. That is, if I move from the VD with Toad (VD1) to another VD (VD2) work there for a period of time, then move to yet another VD (VD3) and work there, when I go back to VD1, I find that Toad moved to VD2 but did not follow me to VD3.
We have identified the problem. It has to do with our license check, which happens once per hour. We will have it fixed in the next release, which fortunately will be pretty soon...Mid/Late February.
I'll also have it fixed for next beta, so you can get that here on Monday if you wish.
Edit: We released a beta update with this fix on Friday 12/19 rather than our usual Monday update, due to the holidays. The next beta update will be 1/5/2026.
